Greater New Orleans

Students entering kindergarten are expected to enter their first day of class with a set of skills already in place. The expectations are part of the new common core state standards adopted by the Board of Secondary and Elementary Education in 2010. Here student Kristin Gillette, right, gets into a lesson at St. Rose Elementary School.
(NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archives)

In late May, Senate Concurrent Resolution 68 -- an effort to block implementation of the Common Core State Standards -- failed in Louisiana's Senate by a large margin. This is great news for the future of education in our state.

Nearly half of Louisiana's more than 1,300 public schools were graded "D" or "F" in a recent national student achievement assessment. Last year, only about 17 percent of high school seniors met the basic college-readiness benchmarks on the ACT exam.

In order for Louisiana to be able to compete in the business world - both nationally and globally -- we need to make dramatic changes in how and what Louisiana students are taught.

One of the best ways to improve Louisiana's schools is to fully implement the "Common Core," a set of student achievement benchmarks - not a curriculum - developed by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. States, not the federal government, with input from parents, teachers, university professors, and business and community leaders, led the creation of these standards.

The Common Core standards clearly outline what's expected of students at each grade level, focusing on essential competencies like math and English Language Arts that are needed in today's economy. Unlike other educational standards, however, the Common Core is highly flexible, allowing state and local administrators to customize their curricula to the unique needs of their students. While the Common Core establishes clear, attainable goals, it's up to individual states and school districts to figure out the best way to reach them.

Louisiana law requires that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education update the state's education standards every seven years. In 2010, the board chose to adopt the Common Core in mathematics and language arts, and Louisiana joined

44 other states and the District of Columbia in officially adopting the core standards.

In updating the benchmarks with the Common Core consortium, Louisiana's educators learned that their current standards in math and English Language Arts were about two grade levels behind other states. For Louisiana to thrive and develop an economy that supports her citizens and offers a high quality of life for all, we cannot continue to accept these low standards and expectations in schools.

Core standards will improve every aspect of the education system -- professional development for teachers, modernized teacher preparation programs and more challenging textbooks and ancillary learning materials. The state should ensure that implementation occurs with maximum educator and parental input and addresses the myths and misinformation being circulated by opponents of standardized testing. Our students cannot afford even one more semester in schools that fail to equip them for the jobs of the future.

Increasingly, businesses prize cognitive skills in the "STEM" subjects -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics. High-growth industries like biotechnology, Internet technologies and personal electronics require a robust STEM workforce. Indeed, a 2004 study found that a graduating senior's level of proficiency in math is tightly correlated to earnings a decade on, regardless of family income, demographics or college achievement.

However, too many schools in Louisiana are failing to successfully teach these skills. Our state perpetually ranks near the bottom in the annual Science and Engineering Readiness Index, a national measurement of high school performance in physics and calculus. Our state's students are also falling behind with language arts. In 4th grade reading, for example, fewer than 25 percent of the state's students are considered "proficient."

If our state -- or our country -- cannot supply businesses with highly educated workers, managers will look elsewhere. In a global, deeply interconnected economy, the labor market is effectively without borders. And with the United States' poor performance on international exams - American students perform 17th in the world in science and 25th in math -- many other nations are poised and ready to compete for American jobs. No wonder the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and dozens of American companies have signed on to support the Common Core.

Common Core is not a panacea for everything that is not working in Louisiana schools, but it will raise expectations and put Louisiana on the right track. Our schools will be held to smart standards aimed at accelerating the U.S. economy and keeping America competitive. Kudos to the Louisiana Senate for stopping the recent attack on the core standards. Let's hope the commitment from state legislators and policymakers remains strong and that they fully implement the Common Core. Louisiana's future in no small part depends on it.

Brigitte T. Nieland is the director of the education and workforce development council at the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.